42 



SYNOPSES OF THE SPECIES. 



The arrangement of the genera is that given above. In tlie case of 

 synonyms, the oldest name lias been a(loi)te(l, since this method is the 

 only one whereby a uniform system of nomenclature can be obtained. 

 On the other hand, if we follow the law of favoritism we can never hope 

 to have a uniform series of names, since the German student will adopt 

 the name proposed by a German, the Frenchman one proposed by his 

 own countryman, and so on. All of the synonymy given in these pages 

 has been verified by the wn-iter. By a few authors the names of certain 

 genera have been rejected, owing to the fact that the author described 

 under each of them species that properly belong to two or more distinct 

 genera, but this does not at all invalidate the genus, since the name 

 may be retained for one or more of the species and new generic terms 

 applied to the others. Again, certain genera have been rejected on 

 the score that they have been insufficiently characterized, but if one of 

 the species that the author placed in a given genus can be identified 

 with reasonable certainty, the generic characters can readily be ascer- 

 tained from an examination of the specimens themselves. 



Genera founded on characters peculiar to one sex only have not been 

 adopted. The writer is of the opinion that in case the females of any 

 two given species are structurally identical, these two species should 

 not be separated into different genera, no matter to what extent the 

 males of these two species may differ from each other. Any classifica- 

 tion that will not enable us to refer a single specimen of either sex to 

 its correct genus must necessaiily come short of the very object for 

 which it \\ as designed. 



The following pages contain references to all the species of Tachinidfe 

 hitherto reported as occurring in this country north of Mexico and 

 belonging to genera of which the writer has examined representatives. 

 Only the si)ecies studied by the writer are tabulated; the others are 

 listed at the end of the tables. Genera of which the writer has seen 

 no representatives, together with the species from this region referred 

 to them, have already been listed on previous i)ages. The localities 

 given are those in which the specimens studied were captnred; the 

 published records have not been added, since it was intended to make 

 the present work as nearly original as possible. The color of the hal- 

 teres has been purposely omitted as of no specific importance. 



Types of all the new species have been deposited in the United States 

 National Museum. 



Genus CISTOGASTEK Latr. 



Cistofjaater Latreille, in Cuvier's Kegue animal, ^'ol. \ ; 182i;(. 



PaUasia Desvoidy, Essai sur les Myodaires, p. 239; 1830. 



(iymnorhjUa Braxier and Ijergenstannn, Zwcif. Kais. Mas. Wien, VI, p. 157; 1893. 



The synonymy of Pallasia and Cistogaster was first pointed out by 

 Macquart, and has been confirmed by Kondani, Schiner, Braner and 

 Bergenstaram, and others. Our single species is very different in the 



